Introduction/ Background

The Battle of Aleppo was a major military confrontation in Aleppo, the largest
city in Syria, between the Syrian opposition (including the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and
other Sunni groups, such as the Levant Front and the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra
Front),1 against the government of Bashar al-Assad, supported
by Hezbollah, Shia militias and Russia,2 and against the Kurdish People's Protection
Units. The battle began on 19 July 2012 and was part of the ongoing Syrian Civil War.3
A stalemate that had been in place for four years finally ended in July 2016, when
Syrian government troops closed the rebels' last supply line into Aleppo with the support
of Russian airstrikes. In response, rebel forces launched unsuccessful
counteroffensives in September and October that failed to break the siege; in
November, government forces embarked on a decisive campaign that resulted in the
recapture of all of Aleppo by December 2016. 4 The Syrian government victory was
widely seen as a potential turning point in Syria's civil war. 5

Nationwide protests against President Bashar al-Assad began on 15 March

2011, as part of the Arab Spring. In Aleppo itself, large protests started more than a year
later in May 2012.6 During this period, government-organized rallies in support of itself
also occurred.7 Aleppo had remained undisturbed and largely supportive of the regime [8]

[9]
by the 16-month-long conflict until 22 July 2012, when rebel fighters from the
neighboring villages converged and penetrated into it, 10 to which the government
responded with heavy-handed, indiscriminate bombardments of the city. On 16
February 2012, the UN General Assembly issued a resolution with a vote of 137 in
favour, 12 against and 17 abstentions, and called on Syria "to immediately put an end to
all human rights violations and attacks against civilians." 11

Aleppo suffered catastrophic damage during the four-year siege and battle.
According to an Amnesty International report, government forces have been responsible
for the majority of violations in the conflict in Syria. 12 Ravina Shamdasani, a
spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, issued a
statement in November 2016 which said that "strikes

1
"Syria war: Why the battle for Aleppo matters". BBC News. 8 August 2016.
2
"Syria and Russia Appear Ready to Scorch Aleppo". 26 September 2016 via The New York Times.
3
Luke Harding and Martin Chulov (22 July 2012). "Syrian rebels fight Assad troops in Aleppo". The Guardian.
London. Retrieved 29 July 2012.
4
Sim, David (16 December 2016). "The fall of Aleppo timeline: How Assad captured Syria's biggest city". IB
Times.
5
Aron, Lund (2016-12-15). "A Turning Point in Aleppo". Carnegie Middle East Center. Retrieved 2016-12-16.
6
"Students Are Assailed at a Protest in Syria" NYT 17 May 2012
7
"Syria: What motivates an Assad supporter?". Global Post. 24 June 2011. Retrieved 22 February 2012.
8
Gambill, Gary C. (11 March 2013). "Syrian Druze: Toward Defiant Neutrality". Foreign Policy Research
Institute. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
9
"Syrian rebels fight on for Aleppo despite local wariness". The Guardian. 21 August 2012. Retrieved 8
December 2016.
10
"Syrian rebels fight Assad troops in Aleppo". The Guardian. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
11
"General Assembly demands Syria halt violence without delay". UN News Centre. 16 February 2012.
Retrieved 17 December 2016.
12
"TORTURE WAS MY PUNISHMENT' ABDUCTIONS, TORTURE AND SUMMARY KILLINGS UNDER
ARMED GROUP RULE IN ALEPPO AND IDLEB, SYRIA". Amnesty International. 5 July 2016. Retrieved 24
December 2016.
against hospitals, schools, marketplaces, water facilities and bakeries are now
commonplace, and may amount to war crimes". During that phase of the offensive,
about 250,000 civilians were left in the city. 13 In November 2016, UNICEF estimated that
nearly 100,000 children were living under siege in Aleppo. 14 The 2016 offensive cut off
the city from food supplies, and last time eastern Aleppo was reached with
significant humanitarian supplies before the Syrian re-capture was the beginning of July
in 2016.15 The Syrian government, aided by Russian army, used war planes to
systematically bombard hospitals in the rebel-held areas of the city. [16][17] By the end of
November 2016, no functional hospitals were left, and over 20,000 people were
displaced by the fighting.18 Human Rights Watch issued a statement claiming that the
Syrian and Russian military campaign killed more than 440 civilians, including more
than 90 children, between September and October 2016. It also deplored that airstrikes
often appeared to be "recklessly indiscriminate". 19

In May 2014, the UN Security Council voted for the International Criminal
Court (ICC) to investigate war crimes in the Syrian Civil War, but the resolution was
vetoed by Russia and China.20

In 2014, the United Nations adopted Resolution 2139 which ordered the end of
using barrel bombs in the battle.21 The Syrian Observatory of Human Rights stated that
the Syrian army dropped 7,000 barrel bombs in the first five months of 2015, claiming
the lives of 3,000 people. Amnesty International reported that barrel bombs killed 3,000
people in 2014.22 Channel4 reported that videos have emerged online showing the
Syrian army using barrel bombs.

The Syrian government was accused of using the barrel bombs several times.
Some of them were:

1. Middle East Monitor reported 14 deaths allegedly caused by the bombs in the
Kallasa and Qasila neighbourhood of the city in June 2015. 23
2. CNN-IBN wrote about the government dropping barrel bombs in July in the
neighbourhood of al-Bab causing the death of 35 and injuring 50 others. 24

13
"UN rights office concerned at continuing hostilities in both western and eastern Aleppo". UN News Center. 1
November 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
14
"With 500,000 children living under siege in Syria, UNICEF calls for humanitarian access". UN News Center.
28 November 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
15
"Syria: UN envoy urges action to avert mass hunger in eastern Aleppo ahead of 'killer' winter". UN News
Center. 10 November 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
16
"UN health agency denounces attacks on health facilities in Syria". UN News Center. 17 November 2016.
Retrieved 14 December 2016.
17
"Syria war: Aleppo hospital bombed for second time". Al Jazeera. 1 October 2016. Retrieved 14
December 2016.
18
"Syria: Amid 'chilling' situation in Aleppo, 16,000 flee intense fighting, UN aid chief warns". UN News Center.
29 November 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
19
"Russia/Syria: War Crimes in Month of Bombing Aleppo". Human Rights Watch. 1 December 2016.
Retrieved 14 December 2016.
20
"Russia, China block Security Council referral of Syria to International Criminal Court". UN News Center. 22
May 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2016.
21
"'There are no barrel bombs': Assad's Syria 'facts'". Channel4. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
22
"Syria's 'Circle of hell': Barrel bombs in Aleppo bring terror and bloodshed forcing civilians underground".
Amnesty international. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
23
"At least 14 killed in Aleppo barrel-bomb attack". Middle East Monitor. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
24
"Syria: Assad regime barrel bombs kill at least 35 people in Aleppo". IBN Times. Retrieved 24
September 2015.
 3. BBC News alleged the government dropped the bombs in May, leading to the
death of 72 civilians.25
4. The Anadolu Agency of Turkey wrote that the bombs launched by the
government forces in July killed 15 people. 26

According to the Violations Documentation Center, barrel bomb attacks peaked

between April and July 2014, with an average of 107 attacks per month, and decreased
to an average of around 17 per month from September 2014 to March 2015. 27

The government denied using barrel bombs. 28 In an interview to BBC, President

Bashar al-Assad denied using "indiscriminate weapons" like barrel bombs in the rebel
held territories.29 Assad said, "I know about the army. They use bullets, missiles and
bombs. I haven't heard of the army using barrels, or maybe cooking pots." 30

Amnesty International issued a detailed report about Aleppo in 2015. It warned

about the Syrian government use of imprecise explosive weapons on densely populated
civilian areas, illustrating it with the example that eight barrel bomb attacks between
January 2014 to March 2015 killed at least 188 civilians while only one rebel was
recorded among the fatalities. It concluded that the government forces in Aleppo
deliberately targeted civilians and civilian objects, implemented "forced
disappearances", used torture and other ill-treatment among the prisoners and that
this constitutes a crime against humanity.

Chemical attacks by the Syrian government on opposition-held areas in Aleppo

were reported on 10 August31 and 6 September 2016. After these attacks, the victims
reported they were suffering from a shortage of breath, coughing, reddened skin and
eyes, and excessive tearing, and sought medical treatment in hospitals. Five people,
including three children, died as a result. 32 A UN report found that the Syrian
government used the prohibited chlorine bombs in Aleppo, causing "hundreds of civilian
casualties".33 Human Rights Watch also condemned the Russian army for
using incendiary weapons in Aleppo, in violation of international law. 34 Cluster
bombs were also used both by the Russian aviation and the Syrian
government.35 Russia was directly accused of war crimes several times for its part in the
battle at the UN Security Council by the ambassadors of the United Kingdom, the

25
"Syria crisis: 'Barrel bomb strikes kill 72' in Aleppo province". BBC. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
26
"Barrel-bomb attacks kill 15 in Aleppo". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
27
""Death Everywhere": War Crimes and Human Rights Abuses in Aleppo" (PDF). Amnesty International. May
2015. pp. 7, 15. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
28
"'Barrel-bomb attack' targets mosque in Syria's Aleppo". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
29
"Syria conflict: President Assad on weapons of war". BBC. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
30
"If You Kill the People They'll Be Against You". New Republic. Retrieved 24 September 2015.
31
"Syria: Fresh chemical attack on Aleppo a war crime". Amnesty International. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 14
December 2016.
32
"Syria: New Deadly Chemical Attacks". Human Rights Watch. 28 September 2016. Retrieved 14
December 2016.
33
"War crimes committed by all parties in battle for Aleppo UN-mandated inquiry on Syria". UN News Centre.
1 March 2017. Retrieved 2 March 2017.
34
"Syria/Russia: Incendiary Weapons Burn in Aleppo, Idlib". Human Rights Watch. 16 August 2016.
Retrieved 14 December 2016.
35
"Most Syrians killed in unlawful conventional attacks, UN human rights panel says". UN News Centre. 16
September 2013. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
United States and France, due to its use of bunker buster and incendiary bombs on
urban residential areas.[286]

On 19 September 2016, a UN/Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) aid convoy was
attacked at night, as well as a SARC warehouse and health clinic in Urum al-Kubra, a
rebel-held town 12 km west of Aleppo. 20 civilians and one SARC staff member were
killed, while food and medical aid, intended to reach Aleppo, was destroyed. Some
witnesses on the ground at the time of the attack claimed to have heard helicopters
during the attack. The United States accused Russian or Syrian government warplanes
of perpetrating the attack, while Russia rejected the accusation. The UN said it was not
in a position to determine how the attacked unfolded. The UN Operational Satellite
Applications Programme (UNOSAT) said it believed the convoy was attack by airstrikes.
[287][288]
United Nations investigators later concluded that the Syrian government was
responsible for the attack in a "meticulously planned and ruthlessly carried out" air
strike.[289][283] The investigators stated in a report that the Syrian Air Force used barrel
bombs and rockets to attack the convoy and that, after the initial attack, Syrian
government jets strafed the survivors. According to the investigators, since these
actions were carried out deliberately they constituted a war crime. [290]

Following the re-capture of parts of Aleppo by the Syrian government, the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that pro-
government Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary group [291] killed at least 82 civilians, including 11
women and 13 children, in the Bustan al-Qasr, al-Ferdous, al-Kallaseh, and al-Saleheen
neighbourhoods on 12 and 13 December 2016. [292]

In January 2017, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) and the Violations
Documentation Center (VDC) submitted evidence of alleged war crimes committed by
militias backed by Russia and Iran to the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on
Syria. According to the head of the SNHR, "sometimes the Russians exceed the regime
in some kinds of violations" and he noted the similarities between the kinds of war
crimes and violations committed by Russian forces and those of the Assad regime. [293]

In February 2017, "Breaking Aleppo", a report by the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic
Research Lab utilized open source and digital forensic research to reveal both the
Syrian government's atrocities and those of its supporters in the final months of the
siege of Aleppo.[106]

Liability of the State

Applicability of Geneva Convention or any International Humanitarian Law

The commencement of hostilities result in the severance of all normal relations.

Political and economic treaties are terminated. However, treaties of a humanitarian
character remain in force.
 Protocol I to the 1949 of the Geneva Convention created a new category of
international armed conflict. It includes within the definition of international armed
conflict.

Armed conflicts in which peoples are fighting against colonial domination and
alien occupation and against racist regimes in the exercise of their right of self-
determination, as enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and the
Declaration of Principles of International Law concerning Friendly Relations and
Co-operation among states in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

Those engaged in such a conflict receive combatant status and are entitled to
combatant rights and duties. For instance, when captured, they are not to be treated as
ordinary criminals but as prisoners of war.

The purpose of the laws on armed conflicts is well expressed by the 19 th century
declaration of St.Petersburg which said:

The progress of civilization should have effect of alleviating as much as

possible the calamities of war; the only legitimate object which states should
endeavor to accomplish during war is to weaken the military forces of the enemy;
for this purpose it is sufficient to disable the greatest possible number of men;
this object would be exceeded by the employment of arms which uselessly
aggravate the sufferings of disabled men, or render their death inevitable; the
employment of such arms would, therefore, be contrary to the laws of the
humanity.

Thus, it is that the Hague Convention prohibits the employment of arms,

projectiles, or material calculated to cause unnecessary suffering. There is a need to
balance military necessity and humanitarian consideration. This is also expressed in the
advisory opinion on the Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons (ICJ 1996);

The cardinal principles contained in the texts constituting the fabric humanitarian
law are the following. The first is aimed at the protection of the civilian population and
civilian object and establishes the distinction between combatants and non-combatants;
states much never make civilians the object of attack and must consequently never use
weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets.
According to the second principle, it is prohibited to cause unnecessary suffering to
combatants; it is accordingly prohibited to use weapons causing them such harm or
uselessly aggravating their suffering. In application of that second principle, states do
not have unlimited freedom of choice of means in the weapons they use.

Liability/ Responsibility of UN Security Council

The Role of ICC

The Role of Non-State Actor

 International Committee on Red Cross36

The International Commission of the Red Cross published three statements

which sum up the basic rules governing armed conflicts. 37

Prohibitions and Restrictions on the Use of Certain Weapons

1. The customary rule prohibiting the use of the chemical weapons, such
as those containing asphyxiating or vesicant agents, and the use of
bacteriological weapons is applicable in non-international armed
conflicts.

2. The customary rule prohibiting bullets which expand or flatten easily in

the human body, such as Dum-Dum bullets, is applicable in non-
international armed conflicts.

3. The customary rule prohibiting the use of poison as a means of

warfare is applicable in non-international armed conflicts.

4. In application of the general rules listed especially those on the

distinction between combatants and civilians and on the immunity of
the civilian population, mines, booby-traps and other devices within the
meaning of Protocol ii to the 1980 convention on conventional
weapons may not be directed against the civilian population as such or
against individual civilians, nor used indiscriminately.

The prohibition of booby traps listed in Article 6 of the Protocol

extends to their use in non-international armed conflicts, in application
of the general rules on the distinction between combatants and
civilians, the immunity of the civilian population, the prohibition of
superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering, and prohibition of perfidy.

To ensure the protection of the civilian population referred to in

the previous paragraphs, precaution must be taken to protect it from
attacks in the form mines, booby-traps and other devices.

5. In application of the general rules especially those on the distinction

between combatants and civilians and on the immunity of the civilian
population, incendiary weapons may not be directed against the
civilian population as such, against individual civilians or civilian
objects, nor used indiscriminately.

Conclusion

36
ibid3
37
L.C. GREEN, THE CONTEMPORARY LAW OF ARMED CONFLICT, MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS, (1993)